By Bill Koch
I’ve written a new book titled, “Huggs: Former Players Talk About What It Was Like to Play For Hall of Fame Coach Bob Huggins.”
The book includes over 300 pages of pictures and interviews with former Huggins players from Walsh College, Akron, Cincinnati, Kansas State and West Virginia. Their frank and often tender observations coalesce into an insightful character study of a genuine, inspiring, flawed yet caring man, whose against-all-odds achievements led him to the Hall of Fame.
Huggins talks about his days at Cincinnati, his firing by Nancy Zimpher, his commitment to West Virginia’s miners, and the foundation benefiting cancer research that he set up in memory of his mother, who died in 2003. There are also interviews with former Cincinnati assistant coaches MIck Cronin, Andy Kennedy, Frank Martin and Larry Harrison.
The player interviews reveal a side of Huggins that many fans don’t know. It’s a portrait of a demanding coach who's fully absorbed in his players’ lives, and whose loyalty to them and theirs to him has never wavered. The players talk about how Huggins pushed them to a level of excellence even they didn’t know they could reach, and the relationships they still have with him years after their collegiate playing days were over.
“The shirt said University of Cincinnati, but I played for the University of Bob Huggins.” – Kenyon Martin, 2000 National Player.
“How do you say thank you to a guy who’s done that for you?” - Erik Martin, who played for Huggins at Cincinnati and coached under him at West Virginia for the past 15 years.
“I could see the hurt in his eyes (when I told him I was turning pro).” - Dontonio Wingfield, one of Huggins’ most heralded Cincinnati recruits.
Art Long punching a horse? “It never happened. He would have broken his hand.” - Cincinnati All-American Danny Fortson.
“I always thought I should have gone with Coach Huggins in the first place.” – Keith LeGree, who transferred to Cincinnati from Louisville.
“He said, ‘I am the most stubborn person you’ll ever meet.' And he was.” – Cincinnati’s Melvin Levett, aka The Helicopter.
“You can’t kick a coach like Bob Huggins out of an NCAA Tournament game.” – former Cincinnati star Leonard Stokes.
The book will be available for purchase on Amazon in late August, just before Huggins’ induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Sept. 9-10 in Springfield, Mass.
I’ve written a new book titled, “Huggs: Former Players Talk About What It Was Like to Play For Hall of Fame Coach Bob Huggins.”
The book includes over 300 pages of pictures and interviews with former Huggins players from Walsh College, Akron, Cincinnati, Kansas State and West Virginia. Their frank and often tender observations coalesce into an insightful character study of a genuine, inspiring, flawed yet caring man, whose against-all-odds achievements led him to the Hall of Fame.
Huggins talks about his days at Cincinnati, his firing by Nancy Zimpher, his commitment to West Virginia’s miners, and the foundation benefiting cancer research that he set up in memory of his mother, who died in 2003. There are also interviews with former Cincinnati assistant coaches MIck Cronin, Andy Kennedy, Frank Martin and Larry Harrison.
The player interviews reveal a side of Huggins that many fans don’t know. It’s a portrait of a demanding coach who's fully absorbed in his players’ lives, and whose loyalty to them and theirs to him has never wavered. The players talk about how Huggins pushed them to a level of excellence even they didn’t know they could reach, and the relationships they still have with him years after their collegiate playing days were over.
“The shirt said University of Cincinnati, but I played for the University of Bob Huggins.” – Kenyon Martin, 2000 National Player.
“How do you say thank you to a guy who’s done that for you?” - Erik Martin, who played for Huggins at Cincinnati and coached under him at West Virginia for the past 15 years.
“I could see the hurt in his eyes (when I told him I was turning pro).” - Dontonio Wingfield, one of Huggins’ most heralded Cincinnati recruits.
Art Long punching a horse? “It never happened. He would have broken his hand.” - Cincinnati All-American Danny Fortson.
“I always thought I should have gone with Coach Huggins in the first place.” – Keith LeGree, who transferred to Cincinnati from Louisville.
“He said, ‘I am the most stubborn person you’ll ever meet.' And he was.” – Cincinnati’s Melvin Levett, aka The Helicopter.
“You can’t kick a coach like Bob Huggins out of an NCAA Tournament game.” – former Cincinnati star Leonard Stokes.
The book will be available for purchase on Amazon in late August, just before Huggins’ induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Sept. 9-10 in Springfield, Mass.
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